The Bells

<p><strong>AUTHOR OF </strong><strong><em>LIVID • </em></strong><strong>SHORTLISTED FOR THE MISSOURI REVIEW EDITORS PRIZE THE SARTON AWARD AND THE NAUTILUS AWARD </strong></p>
<p><strong>Cai Emmons awes readers with the release of </strong><strong><em> THE BELLS<br></em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>"An immersive psychological portrait of one man's battle with lifelong anger and guilt."-Kirkus Reviews</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>A book Cai finished on the day she died is a story of life: how to live fully embrace our messy complications and swim toward love.</strong><strong><em></em></strong><strong><em>–Miriam Gershow author of Closer and Survival Tips: Stories<br><br></em></strong><strong>Thirty-three-year-old </strong><strong>Niall O’Malley has failed a five-year mission to live as a monk and is attempting to redefine himself as a high school teacher in New Jersey.</strong><br><br>As <em>The Bells</em> opens thirty-three-year-old Niall O’Malley has failed a five-year mission to live as a monk and is attempting to redefine himself as a high school teacher in New Jersey. The transition has been bumpy. He loves teaching history to inner city teens but he hits a roadblock when a belligerent student Colton possibly a white-supremacist behaves in ways that threaten Niall. As troubles mount at school Niall’s girlfriend Lluvia pressures him into making a deeper commitment to their relationship. She wants them to move in together with Lluvia’s pre-teen daughter and elderly mother.</p>
<p>Haunted by his failure as a Cistercian monk and his troubles with one man in particular the abusive Brother Thomas Niall abandons Lluvia and heads back to his old monastery in Massachusetts for a final showdown with Thomas now dying of ALS. Redemption for Niall is elusive as he strives to mend his faith.</p>